Last session, the party found the coeurl in their hex and negotiated with it to leave and go bother Thief’s Town instead. That took care of the last problem, clearing the hex (converting it from wilderness to frontier). I meant to post about it here, but I never got around to it.
“
raiders are different from bandits”
This session, we picked up where that session left off. After they cleared their hex, the players decided the group’s goal was to do something about the raider harassment. The raiders have taken an interest in them, and they’re trying to get the party’s attention by bothering their people as they travel from the party’s settlement (Cal Maestros) to the main outpost (Finland, named after the Fin River on which it is located). I spent some time prior to the session preparing the raiders to get an idea of what they were actually about. It had been established that (some) people were afraid of them, but they didn’t seem to be bothering people really.
It turns out the situation is a little complicated. What the PCs know is the raiders have been bothering adventurers but not messing with the military or government in Finland. They have political reasons to avoid direct confrontation with the authorities, but they will try to recruit or eliminate (often the latter) adventurers who pose a risk to their operations. Hence why adventurers tend to be wary of them (because either way they tend to disappear).
Anyway, the party departed from Cal Maestros to Finland. Along the way, they ran into some interesting things. On the first night, Dingo (the thief) was on first watch. He noticed something watching them from the forest. He lit a stick on fire and went into the forest to try to shoo it away. He rolled Coercion + Willpower with possible consequences such as provoking trouble (either from it or something else). He got a mixed success, so he drove it away, but it was going to take interest in them.
During the second day of travel, they noticed a couple of guys on horses. These were bandits (not to be confused with the raiders) who have taken over the ancient tramway station nearby. One of the things they learned last session was that a group of adventures had gone to investigate it and disappeared. While making camp, Dingo decided to follow some tracks the party saw while Tama (the cleric) and Deirdre (the barbarian) took care of the horses pulling their wagon and finding a supply of water.
He followed the trail for half an hour or so. He rolled Tracking + Wisdom (how to follow discretely) to try to avoid being noticed as a consequence. He got a success though, so he found the trail lead to a raised stone platform (or what appeared to be one). He had a hunch the bandits were located there but did not see any direct evidence for it. Dingo returned to camp and updated Tama and Deirdre.
That night, Tama was awoken by the sound of something going through their cart. While they had built a campfire the first night, they did not build one tonight out of concern for being noticed by the bandits. Since there are no stars and moon, the only light was the one coming from their cart. Tama woke Deirdre, who chucked a satchel at Dingo to wake him up. Deirdre grabbed her axe and went over to the cart to investigate. She say a youngish guy (17~18), wiry with red hair and a light around his neck and a ration stuffed in his mouth. He was shoveling rations into a bag. Deirdre tried to suggest it was a bad idea.
The kid threw the bag over the side and jumped the other way. Deirdre ran around and tackled him. This was Athletics + Strength with consequences such as finding out something unwanted from tackling him (or he gets away as a big consequence). She succeeded, and he was down. The kid’s name was Roy. Roy was interested in their rations because he likes people food. He lives with his family in the forest (and Roy was the one who was watching the party the night before). The party gave Roy some rations and then started asking him questions about the area. The more information he gave them, the more rations they gave him.
According to Roy, a dozen or so bandits had moved into the area near the platform. According to the family elder, it was a dangerous place with some kind of metallic monster. It’s not known what it is (it’s some kind of kill bot), but they know when a group of adventures showed up recently, the bandits forced them down below the platform, and they weren’t seen again after that. The party was appreciative of the information. They had an interest in the platform and using the tramway as a means of accessing the capital. This saved them from having to investigate more themselves when they have other problems pressing them.
Roy then turned into a tiger and left with his rations. The party had suspected something, but Dingo was not pleased by this revelation. The party encountered tigers as noted in
post #84, so maybe it was the lycanthropes taking an interest in them when they were first traveling through the area.
The next morning, the party packed up and headed the rest of the way to Finland. On their way into town, the guards were much more diligent about following procedure when admitting the PCs into town. It turns out Léon the representative from the Warin-Graf Occult Society (i.e., the vampire hunter mentioned in
post #288) had arrived in town. He was being put up as a guest of the administration, so security was increased a bit.
The PCs paid for their usual accommodations (private rooms at Sugar’s Place), giving them two downtime activities they could do while in town over the next week. Tama decided to research dragon vulnerabilities. She’s concerned about how they will deal with Firlax when he shows up. It’s possible to negotiate with dragons, but they’re used to imposing their will, and fire dragons tend to have hot-headed, so it can be dangerous. She decided to look for leads on magical weapons (such as ice swords) that would be effective against it.
Unfortunately, she did not make progress on her research clock. Fortunately, when I rolled to advance clocks, the incoming dragon clock only increased by 1 (to 7/8). If it had arrived, Cal Maestros would send a messenger requesting the PCs return since they’re the masters of the demesne. The party’s construction made a bit of progress. The clock tracking Kitty’s preparations (for the heist also mentioned in
post #288) also did not advance.
Dingo decided to misdirect Léon. His plan was to break into Léon’s room, look for any information (and maybe treasure) then leave a note from Diane (Deirdre’s vampire hunter alias described in
post #273) indicating that vampires were off in a different direction other than hanging out in the guest house at their manor. Tama used her other downtime activity to help Dingo with the forgery by providing information on vampire rituals using her undead knowledge (Rituals + Wisdom). Dingo rolled Craft + Wisdom to create the forgery using his underworld knowledge as the permission to do this craft and his knowledge of hiding things to encode the message in a more mundane one (since the goal was to create a ciphered message).
While Dingo and Tama did this, Deirdre and Ilsa (Deirdre’s bard retainer) spent time looking for raider contacts in Finland. (Ilsa doesn’t usually travel with the party. She normally stays in town to promote Deirdre and update the party on goings on.) Deirdre rolled Rapport + Wisdom (for her knowledge of warriors) to find them. Ilsa helped as part of a group check. They got a success, finding out about a temporary drinking establishment that had been set up in an abandoned warehouse. They pretty much slapped some boards on crates and tapped some kegs. There she found Eric the Dangerous and some other raiders in town on business, having a drink. The guys Dingo gave the chalice in
post #273 were also there drinking out of it. (My players found that hilarious.)
Deirdre sat down with Eric to find out more about why the raiders were interested in them. Eric told her that Maria was trying to get their attention because she wanted to meet with them. Deirdre asked if instead of meeting at the raiders’ camp if they could meet here. Eric told her that Maria does not usually meet people outside the camp, but he could see if he could arrange something. This was a lie. Eric does not like that the raiders act so conservatively. He’s trying to create discord among the raiders and depose the leadership. I noted his intent to deceive Deirdre, whose player then foregrounded consequences. In this case, that his deception would not play out back with the raiders as expected (since he needs to manipulate someone there as well).
Eric got a success. He will be sending word in a few days of the meeting. That is the time required for him to return to the camp and recruit Sona to play the part of Maria in the meeting he’s arranging. Sona is enamored with him, so that wasn’t difficult for him. It just happed as a product of the roll (since the outcome is setting up this deception). “Maria” will be meeting with the PCs in a few days after they receive notification at the warehouse that used to be occupied by vampires (again described in
post #273).
Even though the PCs lack the fictional position to suspect the deception, they’re still wary of the raiders. Deirdre spent her last downtime activity recruiting mercenaries to back them up. She rolled Rapport + Wisdom with Ilsa helping again (more warriors knowledge). This time, they only got a mixed success. The base rate was 25 S, but since adventurers are also afraid of the raiders, Deirdre had to pay double (for a total of 250 S for five swordsmen). It’s cheap because they’ll only be needed for this job.
Finally, Dingo decided to observe where Léon was staying for his last downtime activity. He’s looking for any gaps in the security he can exploit. Based on what he was able to determine, the are two possible ways he can get inside. The first is to exploit gaps in the patrols. If he’s quick, he can make it up into Léon’s room. The risk is that puts guard patrols on the table as consequences. Time will be precious. The other option was disguising himself as cleaning staff. Dingo expressed enthusiasm only for entering during the gap in patrols, so that is the route he will be taking.
Next session, we’ll be playing out the meeting then playing through Dingo’s infiltration attempt.
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